


you're my happy ending

by Hellokaelyn



Category: NCIS
Genre: Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2020-04-11 12:28:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19109674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hellokaelyn/pseuds/Hellokaelyn
Summary: Nick gets poisoned during a case leading to some confessions.





	you're my happy ending

**Author's Note:**

> For the anon on Tumblr who requested it.

Nick lay in a hospital bed in a closed sealed hospital room that didn't have a window. Only a secure door and an observation window. Which is where Ellie sat, leaning against the window holding a phone to her ear that was connected to his room, there was a speaker by his bed that transmitted to the phone.   
  
It was the only connection any of them besides suited up doctors had with him for two days now. Ellie longed for even the simplest of touches.  
  
For two weeks they had been chasing a scientist who had killed three marine's with some unknown chemical he created, two days ago they finally found him but during their chase through an old house of his he had been hiding out in, Hatfield had thrown something at Nick that splattered on his clothes. Just as they were about to run into the room, Nick quickly shut the door while Hatfield escaped out the back. McGee went running after him but lost him, and Gibbs was immediately on the phone.   
  
Hatfield had thrown his homemade chemical on Nick. Things only got worse from there. Hatfield had killed himself and his body was found an hour later in the car he had stolen. Then began a frantic search for his antidote. Not only were professionals trying to find one with the help of Hatfield's research, but Abby had returned with the help of her friend Carol.   
  
Ellie did her own research from her perch in front of the window, but Gibbs had tasked her with staying by Nick's side..or the best she could.   
  
The only benefit they had was the other marine's didn't even know they were poisoned so they never had the help of any doctors until it was too late, but Nick did. They did the best they could to help and keep him comfortable. Right now he was hooked up to liquids as he couldn't drink anything without throwing it up. He was pale, dark rings under his eyes as if he didn't sleep even though he slept a lot, that spark in his eyes was disappearing, and he was weak.   
  
He was dying, and she was terrified.   
  
"Ellie." Nick mumbled.  
  
She shot up, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. "Yeah?"  
  
"I think..I think we need to start being prepared."  
  
"Don't." She said firmly, her stomach dropping as her voice cracked. "Don't say that. There's a bunch of people working on this-"  
  
"I can feel it."  
  
Ellie closed her eyes for a second and swallowed the lump rising in her throat. "Feel what?" She asked hesitantly afraid of the answer.  
  
She watched through the window as a tear slid down his cheek. "Not much time.."   
  
When Nick struggled to keep his eyes open, weakly rubbing at them, Ellie took his distraction as a gift in that moment. She pulled the phone away for a second and covered her mouth, muffling the sobs that broke through. She felt seconds away from being sick.   
  
"You're strong Nick." She whimpered into the phone, placing her hand on the glass window. "The strongest person I know, stronger than Gibbs even! You can do this, I know you can!"   
  
He smiled for a second. "I..want to be ready..just in case.."  
  
"R-Ready?"  
  
Ellie frantically sent a text to McGee and Gibbs, telling them they seriously needed to _hurry_.   
  
"There's..some things I want..to tell you."   
  
"Nick-" She sniffled.   
  
"You're my best friend." Nick said. "But you're..so much more."   
  
"You're mine too." She whispered.   
  
"When we first started..working together..something about you..caught my attention and I..when I found out you were..dating Qasim I was so jealous."  
  
Ellie's eyes widened. She had no idea. Though she felt her heart ache thinking back. Ellie loved Qasim, she really did..but there had always been a part of her, a small part, that kept thinking about Nick. When he would make her laugh there'd be a thought in the back of her head a _Qasim doesn't make you laugh this easily_ or _Qasim never makes you laugh this much_. She had hated it, and when Qasim died she shoved it as far away as she could because he deserved so much more than she had given him.  
  
"We had a talk..about you."  Her head snapped up, mouth open. _What?_. Nick weakly chuckled. "Qasim..offered to..move aside if I really wanted..to be with you."  
  
She laughed, a sad teary laugh. Nick's lips twitched understanding why she was laughing. It was so Qasim to do such a thing, he had always put others first ahead of his own feelings.   
  
"He was a..good guy and a..good friend, even when he knew I..liked his girlfriend." She smiled sadly. "He told me you know..about proposing to you."  
  
A gasp left her mouth. "What?"  
  
"Qasim was worried..about how I'd feel..about it." Nick scoffed though it barely sounded like one. "Like I..mattered, I told him you..deserved to be happy..and he made you happy."   
  
Ellie sobbed again, this time not having the chance to hide it. She cried for Qasim, sweet Qasim who had been so nervous about proposing and who had been worried about hurting Nick. And she cried for Nick, not only for right now, but for the Nick back then who knew the woman he liked was going to get married to someone else (not that it happened..).   
  
(A part of her wondered if down the line she would have still been happy with Qasim..or would these strong feelings of what she realized was love for Nick still happen?)   
  
"When he died I felt..guilty." Nick admitted. Ellie shook her head, he had nothing to be guilty for. "Maybe if I..didn't like you and wasn't jealous..maybe it was some..sick karma."   
  
"That's not true Nick, not at all." Ellie told him.   
  
"After Charlie and Luis..I realized my feelings for you..were stronger than I thought..and then Reeves died..and I wondered again if it was..karma." He breathed out. "My feelings only..grew for you Ellie." Tears slid down her cheeks. "Whenever you'd end up in..dangerous..situations..it terrified me. Then we looked after Cody..and I..realized I-"  
  
He stopped himself.   
  
"Realized what?" Ellie asked softly, heart racing.  
  
"That I..love you."  
  
Ellie covered her mouth to at least muffle her crying. "Nick, I love you too." For a second..just a second, she saw that spark back in his eyes as he smiled.   
  
"I want you to..find your happy ending..one day."  
  
"Don't say that." She cried, her words sounding jumbled through her tears. "You're my happy ending."  
  
"You're..mine too." He whispered.  
  
Ellie placed her forehead against the glass window and cried loudly no longer caring who heard her. Nick's own cries sounding in her ear.   
  


* * *

  
  
Hours later when doctors rushed in as Nick's heart monitor flatlined, Ellie's screams echoed through the hall. Gibbs' arms tight around her as he held her back from running in the room. She collapsed in his hold, the only thing anyone could make out through her hysterical sobbing was Nick's name. 

 

* * *

  
  
**One Year Later**  
  
Ellie bent down in front of the gravestone, placing the flowers in her hand neatly against it. She softly ran her fingers along the top of it as she stood.   
  
She turned and walked away to where a lone figure was standing some distance away.  
  
"Ready to go home?"   
  
"Yeah..more than ready."   
  
A soft sigh left her lips when his lips touched hers, hand rubbing gently over the small bump of her stomach that seemed to pop over night it felt like.   
  
His arm wrapped around her shoulders as they walked to the car, she leaned against him smiling when she felt him kiss her head.   
  
Right as they got into the car his phone rang.   
  
"Torres." He said as he answered.  
  
Ellie watched him roll his eyes, giving her an annoyed look that had her chuckling.   
  
"What? Tim the twins are three, I think that's a little too young for a giant bouncy house for their party-"   
  
She snorted from her seat making Nick glare at her. It always amused her that McGee had been for some reason, bugging Nick with ideas for the twins upcoming birthday.   
  
Nick switched the call to the car speakers as he started the car, one hand on the wheel while he intertwined the other with Ellie's hand. She leaned against the seat with a soft smile, listening to her two best friends and rubbing circles on her baby bump.   
  
A year ago her heart broke into a million pieces as Nick died. Nick didn't like to think he died but Ellie had heard it, he _died_.   
  
Thankfully the doctors had brought him back although they weren't sure he'd wake up if he didn't get the antidote within a few hours. And with a stroke of luck and what Ellie believed to be Qasim and Clay looking after him from above, Abby had come running down the hall with the scientist who had been helping at her heels  
  
She had brought what they all believed to be the antidote.   
  
Ellie gasped for air when the doctors confirmed it was working. It was as if the whole time she was underwater, but now she had reached the surface and could _breathe_.   
  
Things moved quickly when he was out of the hospital and cleared to go back to work. Neither of them regret a second of it though, life was too short and when you knew..you _knew_.   
  
They got married only months later surrounded by their team and family, and now they were expecting their first child.   
  
Ellie stared out the window as they drove out of the graveyard gates. She said a quiet goodbye to Qasim and Clay in her head, today had been a year since that day, Ellie still firmly believed it was them looking out for Nick that brought him back and for the reason they had discovered the antidote, so she wanted to thank them.   
  
She turned to look at Nick and felt the flutters that seemed to be permanent when it came to him.  
  
In the hospital they had said to each other they were the others happy ending, and now they had it. 


End file.
